Skutchan: It's deja vu all over again with home size caps

Jan. 26, 2013

Written by

Clint Skutchan

Fort Collins Board of Realtors

In the words of the great Yogi Berra “It’s like deja vu all over again.” Three members of the Fort Collins City Council have decided to revisit the issue of capping the size of Old Town homes by using a sliding-scale floor area ratio remarkably similar to an ordinance repealed only 20 months ago.

Two years ago to this day I wrote a column about the Eastside/Westside Neighborhood plan explaining, how a council motivated by an upcoming election was ignoring good public process and the advice of the city’s planning and zoning board. I pointed out how council was pushing through a size limitation proposal for homes in the Old Town area that lacked the support and understanding of citizens.

Two months later, council repealed the ordinance after citizens united to gather the thousands of signatures necessary to force a repeal vote. To my knowledge, a citizen-driven grassroots effort to repeal an ordinance passed by council hasn’t happened in the past 30 years, if ever.

Today a second Eastside/Westside Neighborhood effort is nearing a vote after nine months and roughly $100,000 of taxpayers money spent on related consultants and an outreach process. Based on a 160-plus-page report and community outreach, the consultants offered council several recommendations to address identified concerns, including four that have received the support of the Fort Collins Board of Realtors.

A floor area ratio cap was not among those recommendations. As the report states, such a ratio “is not suggested for further development,” based on the fact that “many residents and other stakeholders feel that it is an overly restrictive tool that limits flexibility for expansion.”

Not to mention the legal tightrope created by using a similar method to redress an issue previously repealed by a council vote.

But as recent history has shown us, a politically motivated council needs not heed the direction of trusted — and in this case, paid — experts when making decisions. Council members Ben Manvel, Lisa Poppaw and Kelly Ohlson directed staff to recreate a sliding-scale floor area ratio cap at a work session in late November that is now scheduled for a Feb. 19 vote.

The recreated ratio scale was first shared with the public Jan. 16, leaving only four weeks for citizens to understand the full impact on property rights. Even city staff has voiced concern about such a short time frame, yet we’re told that there is no willingness to postpone a vote to allow time to gather and share necessary information.

This is again another example of how poor process takes root when rushing items of significance.

It’s like 2011 all over again. But unlike last time, it’s doubtful those same engaged citizens will be around to intervene, as many feel ignored and have lost faith in a representative council.

This loss of faith is ultimately even worse for our community than the proposed ratio caps.

Clint Skutchan is CEO of the Fort Collins Board of Realtors. Learn more about FCBR at www.fcbr.org. Reach Skutchan at (970) 223-2900 or clint@fcbr.org.

Clint Skutchan - Business

Clint Skutchan is the executive vice president for the Fort Collins Board of Realtors, or FCBR. To learn more about FCBR, visit its Web site at www.fcbr.org. Call Skutchan at (970) 223-2900 or send email to clint@fcbr.org.